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  3. I’m in Paris, and a strangely quiet Paris it is. Nothing is going nowhere.

I’m in Paris, and a strangely quiet Paris it is. Nothing is going nowhere.

游客2023-11-18  55
问题      I’m in Paris, and a strangely quiet Paris it is. Nothing is going nowhere. If they’re not on strike here, they’re stuck in a traffic jam. It took me two hours to go two miles yesterday evening. And this morning many of the taxis, too, have joined in, leaving me with no alternative but to start walking. And it’ s bitterly cold!
     The strikes are serious protests about serious issues, but I’m struck, as so often on these occasions, by something much more mundane. People are once again talking to people; strangers are going out of their way to befriend strangers, allies for a week or two in their shared frustration. Parisian motorists, even, normally the most competitive of individualists, have been seen leaving notes in their parked cars saying where they are going and when they expect to leave in case anymore wants a lift.
     Remove the technology of modem life, it seems, and we often start to be nice to one another again. Technology can isolate us, for all its benefits. It started, I guess, with the chimney. Before there were chimneys, we all had to huddle together in one room Just to keep warm, master and maid, cowman and son of the house. Then some unknown genius came up with the idea of the chimney, and the social stratification of society increased dramatically as all withdrew into their own quarters. Central heating, which is, more truthfully, decentralized heating, made it worse, and now we have our walkmans, our microwaves, or, if we’ re really trendy, the Internet and e-mail. You can get by, these days, without actually speaking to anyone at all. Just the odd grunt to show that you’ re alive !
     I liked the survey which asked teenagers how they laid a table for a meal. Did they put the knife on the fight and the fork on the left, or did they put them both together? And 40 percent said one and 20 percent the other, but 40 percent didn’t know! They had never sat down at a table together but had always, as they say, been grazers, helping themselves from the fridge and carrying the food off to their own comer to munch on their own.
     If progress means that we don’ t need to talk to each other anymore, then I’m getting worried. You can’ t begin to love and befriend your neighbors if you never talk to them, and vice versa, they can’t love you. It becomes a recipe for a world of solitaries. But most of us weren’t destined to be hermits. People need people to be truly people, as the Parisians, in spite of all their frustrations, are discovering again this week. "Try walking instead" was my motto for this morning, but perhaps the motto for us all this festive month might be "Turn it off, whatever it is, and try talking instead!"  [br] Which of the following statements is true?
选项 A、The recipe for a world of hermits may fail to be appropriate for people living in a modem society.
B、Social development means that we can give up talking and walking.
C、One who is trendy enough can get by, these days, by making some low rough noises.
D、Central heating will be "decentralized heating" when it breaks down.
答案 A
解析 细节理解题。答案A对应最后一段当中的"It becomes a recipe for a world of solitaries. But most of us weren’t destined to be hermits. People need people to be truly people.... " 答案B, C, D与原文相背，可分别在第五段和第三段找到依据。decentralize vt.: 使分数。
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